European Patent Publication No. 0 249 874 discloses an apparatus which forces a V-shaped configuration upon the leading portion of a stream of printed products. The apparatus includes two rotatable shafts positioned opposite one another. Each shaft supports rollers with differing diameters. The shafts are arranged opposite one another with each roller on one shaft located opposite a roller of a different diameter on the other shaft. The rollers impress a V-shaped configuration upon the printed products moving between the two shafts.
When multiple page printed products are produced in a printing press, a stacked web is formed as several webs converge into an overlapping arrangement. The stacked web is moved between a pair of cutting cylinders which, with cutting knives, separate the stacked web into web sections. After each cut is made, the overlapping layers of the stacked web can be spread apart at their leading edges by air resistance when the stacked web moves from the pair of cutting cylinders to an adjacent transport device. Spreading open of the stacked web makes a correct, position-exact transfer of the beginning of the stacked web into the transport device impossible.
The apparatus disclosed in European Patent Publication 0 249 874 cannot be located in a position to receive the stacked web as it moves away from the pair of cutting cylinders in a printing press as described above.
When one of the layers of such a web spreads open when entering the transport device, it can cause paper jams which lead to uselessness of the web. Long and costly down time of the apparatus is the result.